20th Life
“What do you mean you haven’t seen a brown girl come in here? You dare lie to me, mortal?” Banbang unleashed his sword for anyone to see.
“I swear upon my life that no brown girl has ever come into my inn! Please do not kill me! I have a family!” The innkeeper slammed his forehead on the floor of his dirty entrance.
“Tch...” Banbang sheathed his sword before walking away. He must have walked into the wrong inn.
Thanks to that lucky circumstance, Leah managed to live that night and go back to work in the morning as a blacksmith’s apprentice. The Innkeeper’s daughter was manning the counter earlier, so the Innkeeper was telling the truth. Days, weeks, and months passed as a simple apprentice to a blacksmith that wasn’t even the best in the city. Leah learned everything she could about metalworking and seemed to have some talent in forging according to Tengfei. It only took about 5 years before she surpassed him through nothing but hard work, constant learning, and the imagination to experiment and think out the box.
Tengfei eventually passed on his shop to her after losing to her in a small little competition. Their competition took place for over a week in which both of them used their skills to make the best sword. As Leah has a general dislike for swords for some reason, she decided to change up her sword quite a bit into a unique shape. It curved at the end of the tip and had a crescent guard in front of the area where the wielder would hold the blade. She called them Hook Swords. While Tengfei created a sword that anyone would be able to identify as a regular sword.
To test which weapon was better, Leah proposed the idea of having two martial artists fight with one another while using their created swords. Tengfei was fine with this idea but didn’t know who would want to do such a thing for free. Leah convinced her boyfriend to do it with his friend. They had no problems with doing it since they got to keep such awesome blades for themselves after the battle. So, both of them performed in the middle of the city using both Tengfei and Leah’s swords.
Normally two weak cultivators wouldn’t bring much attention even in a city like Yellow Jade City where cultivators are treated almost like immortals. And they didn’t! Leah’s boyfriend lost in the fight because of how complex and how much skill her hook swords required to properly use. But Tengfei still declared it his loss. As a man and a respectable blacksmith, he knew the difference between their creations. There was no point trying to be stubborn. He taught the girl everything she knew. Using what he taught her, she began trying new things to become even better than he was. Soon, he was left in the dust but he didn’t give up just like that. He too began to learn from her and improve his old rusty skills some more.
“Tch. I should’ve got someone more talented to try my hook swords...” Leah bit her fingernail in irritation.
“I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t know if I had to slice, hook, or stab with these things. It's so confusing.” He held up the hook swords.
“I’ll explain it to you later. Thanks for the help. Bye now.” Leah turned away from him and stared at Tengfei.
“Do I still get to keep the...”
“Yes. Now go.”
“You oughta be nicer to the boy. Keep treating him like that, he might run away to a nicer gal who will support him and his dreams.” Tengfei loudly laughed.
“Aiming to be a cultivator is suicidal and stupid. It's an impossible dream that leads to an early death for people like him. He has no resources, a weak spine, and little talent for cultivation. I don’t see why he still tries.” Leah shook her head.
“It's every young man’s dream to become a powerful immortal lass. Roaming through the world without restriction. The freedom to do whatever you please whenever you want. It’s the ideal life!”
“Complete and utter nonsense... What’s wrong with a simple and safe life?”
“Isn’t your dream even more ridiculous than his though? All he wants to become is a powerful cultivator. You want to become the greatest blacksmith. I don’t think I need to tell ya, who’s dream is crazier.”
“Blacksmithing is different from actively defying the heavens. One doesn’t have a high chance of death every week and takes far less effort to make a living with.” She logically explained.
“Alright lass, whatever ya say. I know I won’t get anywhere trying to argue with a stubborn nut like yourself. Anyway, you can have my shop. My daughter recently got accepted at Emerald Grass Slaying Sect.”
“Oh, congratulations.” Leah might have thought pursuing a career in cultivation was foolish and suicidal but that didn’t mean she thought all cultivators were idiots.
“Staying here and taking care of her was all that was keeping me in this city. Now that she’s moved away, I'm doing the same.”
“Where are you moving?”
“Grass City.”
“Well, thanks for the raggedy shop, I guess. Maybe if I hire a few contractors, I can expand the place a bit and make it into a more presentable shop.”
“Does it really look that bad?”
“It’s probably the worst shop in the entire city and I've looked around. Small, ugly, and unimpressive. Now that I get a good look at it, I'll probably have to tear the whole thing down and rebuild it anew.” It was just that bad in her opinion.
“Well, it's yours now. Do whatever ya like, Leah.” Tengfei couldn’t help but chuckle at her honesty.
“Thanks for not turning me away that day all those years ago.” Leah said with her back turned.
“You know, I was really thinking about doing it too.” He joked.
“I’m glad you didn’t. Otherwise, I don’t think I would be here now. Maybe. Probably.”
“You’re welcome, kid. See ya around.”
“Be safe.” She told him.
“You too.”
Tengfei left Yellow Jade City and never returned after that day. Leah and her boyfriend, Aotian, lived a relatively peaceful life after that. Leah continued to practice and hone her blacksmithing skills while improving the shop to attract more customers. Until one day, she took on an apprentice of her own. Unlike how she was as an apprentice, her apprentice was a real pain in the rear. She considered firing him on several occasions just on the fact of how annoying he was alone! But never followed through on doing so because of his young age and desperate circumstances.
Eventually, it came the time for Meng Bao, the apprentice, to make a sword of his own. It was shoddy work that Leah would never let hang up on the wall of her store but it was acceptable for his first time. Meng Bao thought otherwise. He believed it was a masterpiece and Leah was a stupid blind ugly hag for insulting his work. So, while she was out one day, he sold the sword to a customer at the same price that Leah would sell one of her weapons. Meng Bao didn’t understand why but Leah didn’t sell regular swords at her shop. A customer would need to place a custom order in if they wanted her to make a sword for them. Which would cost more money than just buying one of the long-handled axes on the wall or spears or knives.
So, a few days later, Leah was met face to face with an angry customer who had no problems threatening her life and wrecking her shop for selling him a trash sword.
“Do you know how I got this scar?! It's because of this useless sword that I bought from here!” He angrily yelled while pointing to the carved x on his face.
Sir. I’ve told you before that the weapon in your hand is not something that I've put up for sale. Every single one of my works has been etched with a signature of mine. Just take a look.” She grabbed several of the weapons knocked on the floor from his tantrum and pointed to the signature with the letter L on each of them.
Not that anyone understood what this letter was in this place but she did make it look cool. Mortals loved what cultivators thought was cool, strong, beautiful, or whatever. So Leah played with that to her advantage and had her cultivator boyfriend so some free advertising for her. By making a little show in front of her shop praising her L signature and how masterfully designed her weapon was, she got some nice new customers.
“So, you’re calling me a liar?! A mortal woman like you is calling me, a cultivator, an immortal! A liar! I see. You truly don’t value your life, do you? Do you think I won’t kill you?” He was beyond belligerent at this point.
Leah realized that there was no point trying to reason with someone like this. As a mortal through and through, there was no chance of her being able to escape or fight her way out of this. He was in front of the only exit of the shop and she had no way to get in contact with Aotian. It looks like even this career is dangerous. Even if you’ve done nothing wrong, cultivators are the deciders of life and death. If you upset them as a mortal, you can only pray that they don’t kill you.
Unfortunately, Leah wasn’t one to accept her death peacefully. She was going to fight with everything she had. Even if she looked pathetic or retarded. It was better to die fighting than to accept an unjust, unreasonable, and completely stupid death! It pissed her off that this stranger was spouting off at the mouth at her with some nonsense and had the right to kill her at his whim! Nothing would happen to him after her death because she was just a woman and a mortal! Screw that! A small regret welled up in her heart upon realizing how powerless she was in this situation. Maybe if she was a cultivator something like this wouldn’t be happening in the first place.
“I don’t think you’re a liar, sir. I just believe that a mix-up has occurred.” Leah rested on her knees to the floor with a spear right next to her.
“It’s too late for that. You should’ve been bowing and apologizing the second I walked into this trash shop! Pray that you’ll reincarnate in a better life and as a man this time!” He swung his sword down just as Leah was rising upward with the spear with a fierce glint in her eyes filled with rage.
Her fantastically forged spear easily pierced through the man’s throat as her head went flying into the air. A pissed-off expression appeared on her face as her head landed next to the “trash sword” she supposedly sold to him. Engraved at the bottom of the blade was a familiar signature that she had a part in making, MB.
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I think she'll regain a tiny bit of her real past memories due to this heart demon trial....afterall she's literally in tears in the real world afterall (hu tao noticed jing has tears in her eyes)
Yep
This is nice as wee get a perspective on how non-cultivators face with heart demons stuff. Since a lot of xianxias, have the mc rather perceptive about what is happening.
Big thump